🔆 The Summer edition of Let's Connect, my newsletter bringing together up-to-date knowledge and information about effective smartphone use, positive device habits, and digital wellness for parents with babies, is now published and ready to read here:

lets-connect.beehiiv.com/p/june-newsl...

Our latest paper found a number of risk factors for mother-infant responsiveness. Mitigating these cumulative risks and preventing reduced mother-infant responsiveness through adequate resources, education, and tailored support is crucial in the First 1001 days.

#Technoference #First1001Days

🔍 We are looking for parents to join us at the University of Edinburgh for an exciting new research project!

Can you help us design resources to support parents with effective smartphone use habits?

To find out more, and to join us for this hands-on and innovative project: tinyurl.com/yy2mvd45

New fathers' mental health is often overlooked, but recent research shows what helps:

💬 Check in with dads too
👋 Actively involve them
📄 Share dad-focused info
🗣️ Offer one-to-one space to talk
💡 Treat families as a unit

Read full study:

📣 We are recruiting for a new study! 📣

We want to talk to first time parents in the UK with babies aged under 12 months old about their experiences of using their phones while parenting.

The good, the bad - we want to hear it all!

Join us for an online focus group:
tinyurl.com/483vnewu

Let's Connect is my (relatively infrequent) newsletter, bringing together up-to-date knowledge and information about effective smartphone use, positive device habits, and digital wellness for parents with babies.

Read the latest newsletter and subscribe for future posts here: tinyurl.com/4m63kd8x

Our paper focusing on the voices of pregnant women experiencing perinatal distress was cited in Forbes:
"3 Harsh Truths About Pregnancy That No One Tells You—By A Psychologist"

Read the study: tinyurl.com/mvbu3cu6
Read the Forbes article: tinyurl.com/mr43x8nh

www.bbc.com/news/article...

58 of those children were babies under the age of one.

If you're not thinking about poverty, you're not thinking about infant mental health.

What does it feel like for pregnant women who experience psychological distress? Our study published in PPTRP explores the voices of women for whom pregnancy was "not all glowing and kale smoothies"

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PerinatalMentalHealth #MaternalMentalHealth

450 mothers across the UK took part in my cross-sectional survey to explore the associations between mental health, infant development, #smartphone use habits, and #mother-infant responsiveness.

A summary of the results in plain English can be found here: blogs.ed.ac.uk/wellbeing-sm...

Scottish Charity Starter pack:
go.bsky.app/VDuTxi3

Now including @sharedparentsco.bsky.social @peekscot.bsky.social 👍

Technology isn’t inherently bad. We just need to be reflective about how we use it. @peteetchells.bsky.social summarises perfectly why panic fuelled research can lead us nowhere!

www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

Happy to share the first empirical paper from my PhD thesis in collab with Angus MacBeth and @karri-g-smith.bsky.social
- a cluster analysis of risk and protective factors for maternal smartphone use and mother-infant responsiveness

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#PerinatalMentalHealth

2025 might be the year that I start triple writing!

www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/stret...

I loved using a dynamic systems approach throughout my PhD to understand the developing relationship between mother and infant.

This blog post from @researchbow.bsky.social introduces state space grids - a methodology for observing dynamic interactions:

👀 👉 blogs.ed.ac.uk/research-bow...

How effective are different psychological interventions for anxiety in the perinatal period? We conducted a meta-analysis to find out

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Results suggest both CBT and mindfulness based (MBI) interventions are effective throughout the perinatal period.

A number of factors can influence dyadic synchrony between mother and infant in the first year of life. Our systematic review identified a number of social determinants of health as well as biological factors.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#Parent-InfantRelationships #InfantMentalHealth

After using an online survey to collect data, I realised I had been infiltrated by bots!

Read this blog and find out my tips and tricks to spot them and stop them from ruining your data!